Steam. Queries from a humble man

Hi guys, just some quick questions.

I'm from Australia (irrelevant? you'll see). I've downloaded Steam - must admit, not the biggest fan - and have looked up FM2009.

Steam quotes FM2009 as $59.99.

Do I take this as AUD or USD? At the moment the AUD is about .6 to the USD, so you can see my hesitation in going ahead with the purchase. I don't want to find out on purchase day, in the event of further financial meltdown, that I've paid a thousand dollars for FM.

For those who have used Steam in the past - how intrusive is it? Can I expect Steam updates every five seconds? CPU hogging, etc?

One last question - forgive me for my ignorance - will Steam be releasing the FM2009 demo at midnight on Sunday, just like NOTW? I'm assuming yes, but I haven't read anywhere that that is explicitly the case.

Thanks guys. Much love

WHAT CURRENCY ARE THE PRICES IN THE STEAM STORE PRICED IN?

All prices presented in the Steam store are in United States dollars - if you need the exact total in your country's currency, please contact your credit card issuer or bank for the current exchange rate (order totals are based upon the exchange rate at the time of purchase).

^ from Steam.

So, the game comes in at a pretty $93~.

I can pre-order for $79.95 AUD.

Not too much incentive I'm afraid...

Australian Dollar i believe

Steam isn't too intrusive s far as I'm aware

And I believe Steam gets the demo first

US Dollar then

Yeah, I'm actually really liking how easy Steam is. It's just a shame the price is a bit exorbitant.

Yeah, I'm actually really liking how easy Steam is. It's just a shame the price is a bit exorbitant.

Yea that was unexpected...I didn't think the price would be different. To the question about steams resource hogging, it doesn't use any noticeable amount of memory at all and updates are game specific so if FM09 is the only game you have you will occasionally see a steam update but I have rarely seen them happen and then only updates when FM is updated.

There are tricks and programs to get steam to go into offline mode and play, maybe FM09 will work in offline mode so you can play without steam connected at all, that would be beneficial.

Oh yeah, I didn't think about that... I suppose Steam will be running in tandem with FM09. Hmm. Hmmm!!!!

Oh yeah, I didn't think about that... I suppose Steam will be running in tandem with FM09. Hmm. Hmmm!!!!

It doesn't use any noticeable resources while its running while playing HL2 of CS2 for me, so even less with FM I suppose if it runs at all.

You can use Steam offline (once you have authenticated) to play FM09.

Fair enough. It's convenient, so I hope the exchange rate rises. Hope the reserve bank inflates our dollar so I can buy FM09 before any speculative attacks occur! Muahaha.

Thanks for the help guys, I know there's a STEAM thread but it seems it's sort of degenerated into a "Hey, how come you're charging me more than someone else? /wave pitchfork"

For those who have used Steam in the past - how intrusive is it? Can I expect Steam updates every five seconds? CPU hogging, etc?

Very non-intrusive indeed.

You can have it so that it's not actually connected to the net, so that it's unable to update itself.

For the most part, it wont update without you telling it, and generally only updates at start-up.

It's very resource-light, especially when you're playing a game. While you can have you friends tab-up, it's still basically in sleep mode.

Remember, Steam is the same client that hosts Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 and Crysis. If it's able to keep these games running with their extremely intensive resource requirements, there should be no issue with FM09.

Cant help with the $AU, sorry bud.

Yeah, I'm actually really liking how easy Steam is. It's just a shame the price is a bit exorbitant.

No. Having your house gold plated is a little exorbitant. Buying FM on Steam is like having your house gold plated, the windows made of diamonds and hiring Pink Floyd to play in your back garden 24/7.

I love Steam i have brought Half- Life 2, Episode One and Two and now FM 2009 for $ 54.99 and on a Norwegian online shop it cost 4 dollar less.

and i do not care

No. Having your house gold plated is a little exorbitant. Buying FM on Steam is like having your house gold plated, the windows made of diamonds and hiring Pink Floyd to play in your back garden 24/7.

Well I could see how Steam could be cheaper - if your local economy is strong... But yeah, ours is quite weak against the American at the moment and I could see users of Steam being plugged for 2x the RRP. Not cool.

It's a shame too because I'd be happy for Steam to micromanage everything in terms of patching, etc.